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"kill the man. save the Indian."
PSU Art Department Scholarship Recipients Art Exhibition
MK Gallery galleries from October 3rd-October 21, 2011
Mixed Media: Rives BFK, watercolor, sumi ink, glass beads, red cotton string
Each panel (11.5"x 7.5") will be strong together with beadwork or
lack there of depending on where the panels are located in the piece.
Artist Statement:
"kill the man. save the Indian" is a conceptual piece with seven panels visually representing the the tragic lose of cultural traditions and values due to over 200 years (how long my family has been in contact with Euroamericans) genocidal tactics, in particular the devastating effects of boarding schools, in my family. This concept of using painted portraits of myself and my ancestors has been an ongoing theme for about a year. I've taken part in many thought provoking and life changing indigenous focused classes since starting at PSU last fall. This particular conceptual piece integrates several concepts, conversations, and moments of my own evolving consciousness and healing. The project as been partly inspired by Dr. Gerald Vizenor's concept of survivance, artist Jaune Quick-To-See Smith's use of Nanabush the trickster, and concepts of healing and native science from Dr. Gregory Cajete. This work is a personal, familial glimpse at the true effects of colonization on the recent six generations of my family as well as the the unbeatable survivance of the seventh generation because of the continued support of long ago ancestors who still give us strength and hope through their prayers and vision. This piece is also my personal mantra that blood quantum is a tool of genocide crafted by the minds of the settlers to obliterate us from the land, from ourselves, and the spirit of our ancestors. That blood quantum has no baring what-so-ever on my ability or right to reclaim my heritage and culture and to heal my wounds as well as those of my family. That no matter what the government or people in power try to do, they can never erase who we were, who we are, and who will continue to be.
The first panel is about survivance features Nanabush the trickster leaping over the death and destruction of colonialist, genocidal policies. The skulls embedded in the land represent that death and true to the character and medicine of the trickster, he/she, is able to jump over that barrier and those traumas. Survivance is a concept best described by the words of Anishinaabe writer and indigenous intellectual, Gerald Vizenor:
"The theories of survivance are elusive, obscure, and imprecise by definition, translation, comparison,and catchword histories, but survivance is invariably true and just in native practice and company. The nature of suvivance is unmistakeable in native stories, natural reason, remembrance, traditions, and customs and is clearly observable in narrative resistance and personal attributes, such as the native humanistic tease, vital irony, spirit, cast of mind, and moral courage. The character of suvivance creates a sense of native presence over absence, nihility, and victimry."
The second panel belongs to my great-great-great grandmother Cow. Cow was her common name and is not a reference to a milk cow, but to a female buffalo. When she was born they had little contact, if any, with settlers. Her portrait is based off an actual photograph of her taken when she was well over 100 years old. It's the only picture I have of her. On her panel she is surrounded by a large, red star and the "big dipper"constellation. I'm not sure of the Cheyenne word for the constellation, but I do know the story of Quill Girl and the Seven Brothers is out knowledge of how the constellation came to be. I used these symbols on her panel because her sacred name means STAR in English. To me she is a woman who represents strength, endurance, and pure survivance because she lived such a long life and witnessed and experienced so many tragedies and changes in her life-time. She knew the traditional ways as a child and teenager and then was thrust into the mess that came with settler contact. Loss of culture, land, way of life, lives, food, water, security, spirituality. She was a young mother to my great-great grandmother when they were part of the Sand Creek Massacre and her husband, Crow, my great-great-great grandfather was killed in an unprovoked attach by Colorado State Militia. A few years later she and my great-grandmother were also involved in the Battle at Washita and thankfully managed to make it out alive. Although the leader of our band did not, Chief Black Kettle. She also outlived her daughter, my great-great grandmother. She carried on the traditions and language the best she could to her children. As is represented in the beadwork connected panel from her panel to her daughter's panel.
The third panel is for my great-great grandmother Bonhist Medicine Woman Fletcher. According to family records she was a leader in our family/community when we were forced to land allotments in Oklahoma. She was instrumental in getting food to our large family and working with the government agents. While she was alive it is said there was happiness and abundance of food and good water on the land allotments called the Todd Settlement. However, on her 36th birthday she was pregnant and resting in a wagon from working in the fields and one of her children jumped her stomach. Because of this accident she and the baby died soon after. I painted several medicinal and edible plants on her panel such as sage, chokecherries, and cedar to represent her connection to the land and her ability to bring food and medicines to the family/community. You can see that between her panel and her daughter's panel the beadwork of tradition starts to breakdown.
Panels 4 & 5
The fourth panel depicts a dark picture of my great-grandmother Mary (Todd) Hull. I know about her life through what her daughter, my Auntie Helen has told to me and from family records. However, there is much missing and I have used my own intuition and logic to create a few theories about what happened to her and why she made the decisions she did. You see, things really started to breakdown in her generation. After the sudden death of her mother she was shipped off to indian boarding school at Halstead in Kansas from about five years old to twelve years old. The boarding schools at that time were brutal and harsh with rampant abuse, military style living and learning conditions, and coercive assimilation tactics were used to strip the Indian children of their heritage, culture, language, and spirit. At that time the motto for the Indian boarding schools was "Kill the Indian. Save the Man." I don't know exactly what happened to my great-grandmother in that boarding school. But I do know that she was married to a White man in his 40s when she was just about 12 or 13 and had several children with him. She did not teacher her children Cheyenne, although she spoke Cheyenne, English, and German. She did not pass on her knowledge of culture and heritage. I did read stories from one of her children, that my great-great-great grandmother Cow, used to travel for visits bringing our extended family for traditional family powwows (not anything like what we know of powwows today). He described my his mother, my great-grandmother, as enjoying visiting with family, making a huge bonfire and eating traditional foods, and speaking Cheyenne. I also remember, I think it was my Auntie, telling me that she was beaten by her husband for teaching their children Cheyenne so she stopped. Anyway, my great-grandmother ended up abandoning her children there in Oklahoma and ran away with my great-grandfather to Colorado. She had my grandfather and auntie Helen. According to my auntie they never knew they were Cheyenne and didn't know about their half-siblings until my great-grandmother died and at the funeral this whole new family showed up. This disruption of culture and tradition being handed down is clearly visible in the lack of beadwork and almost lack of red string holding the panels of my great-grandmother and grandfather together.
Panel Five is a WWII portrait of my grandfather Albert "Buck" Hull. I never met my grandfather because he died very young when my father was only 18. I don't know a lot about him, but I have heard he was a good person. Yet I also heard that he was as strict disciplinarian and a very devoted Seventh Day Adventist. His WWII military records say his race is White. In WWII he had a communications type of job and relayed Morse code during the battles. This is important because the symbols on his panel above his head are Morse code for L-O-S-T. Symbolizing his loss of culture, tradition, and Cheyenne identity.
Panels 6 & 7
Panel six is a portrait of my father, Dan Hull. This portrait was the one I struggled with the most. I painted it several times and just couldn't get his face correct. It soon dawned on me that I was not supposed to fully render him into the series. That's because he abandoned his children and struggled with drugs and alcohol most of his life. That struggle with alcohol and drugs is depicted in the gnarly, twisting, black marks surrounding his body.
Panel seven is my representation and portrait. Under my portrait is the phrase "KILL the MAN. SAVE the INDIAN." and this phrase is meant as a means of liberation, reversal, and decolonization from the colonial and genocidal tactics of "the man" or the US Government and American society. It counters the other phrase on the panel of my great-grandmother and to me symbolically cancels it out. The word TSITSISTAS is the Cheyenne word for what we call ourselves "the people" or "the beautiful people". It's a statement of identity, place, and reclamation for all my family members. Working to reindiginize my life and decolonize my mind. Learning my my history and culture and participating in community. Working to lift up my Native brother and sisters to honor the sacrifices of my ancestors that walk with me everyday and give me the strength to keep going. This is symbolized by the beadwork between my panel and my father's panel.
This is my story of SURVIVANCE.
